First major boo boo

[bman73]

I'll keep watching hoping you find it, maybe it will be obvious to someone and they will kick in. So far I haven't told you anything you don't know, and I'm at the end of my meager skill set.
I hope you find it in a hurry I know some bear units open about this time, and the others real soon. Good luck

Still have a lot of sausages in the freezer from my spring bear this year so no biggie there, they actually opened up on the 15th of August here. My bull moose draw starts on the 10th of sept. though so I'm kind of hoping to get this sorted by then. I have other guns I can use if needed but have the most amount of time behind this one and feel the most comfortable with it.

 

[Loner]

I can tell you how I screwed up the 22-250 brass. I used a different shell holder in the
press.

 

[CRNA]

I would like to know your answer myself. It seems like an excess headspace situation, but it will be interesting to hear what you find.

 

[Apex Custom Rifles]

Okay so I have now backed off my die, took one of the .338 brass I have laying around that had already been through this gun 2x now, used a candle to soot the neck and ran it through the press. It looks okay to me but I also thought it was okay before as well. Here is a pic of what I ended up with, let me know if it looks like I might still be going to far with it or should I give it a try at this depth?

Looks good to me. How do your primers look? The same as before? Assuming you didn't blow any primers or flatten them, and you said it came out of the same bottle, I wouldn't be concerned about the powder. Primers shouldn't matter ether.

It does look like an excessive head space issue, that's why I asked about the action before. Even if you do have excess head space, by sizing the cases as you just did in the picture, you shouldn't have the case seperation problems anymore. All your new brass will be fire formed again to the chamber size. During new case forming keeping the bullets seated in the lands or right next to them when forming will help with your case seperation too, and it won't be an issue being that you hand load. Only thing might be with that mauser you can usually get quite a few neck sizing reloads if you are not running too hot before you need to FL, or partial FL size.

The one thing though, is if it is an excess head space issue, why all the sudden? Might be something you should have checked out! Have you run hotter loads than before in your last batch?

I have a .308 Norma and have used the .338 WM brass with great success. I don't like the short neck from the .338, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than the Norma cases.

Here's my .338 transformation photo. left to right, with furthest right being a Norma case.

 

[Loner]

You back your load down all you want, you are still going to stretch the brass and take
a bunch of life out of it. But hey, ignore what I told you. It's only been used 1000's
of times by us old timers.

 

[Apex Custom Rifles]

You can size the neck up to .35 or 375 with a ball expander and then resize, head spacing
off the ring you leave near the bottom of the neck. I've done it with 22-250 brass and
it worked fine. I used a 6mm ball expander.

Essentially what my picture above is showing, minus the initial expanding by using an already larger neck.

This solves the problem, but we don't know 100% what caused the problem.

I guess another thing, Is it possible that you had excessive head space to begin with and someone bumped your die, or messed with it and you are now just seeing the problem?

Just throwing out thoughts!

 

[bman73]

Looks good to me. How do your primers look? The same as before? Assuming you didn't blow any primers or flatten them, and you said it came out of the same bottle, I wouldn't be concerned about the powder. Primers shouldn't matter ether.

It does look like an excessive head space issue, that's why I asked about the action before. Even if you do have excess head space, by sizing the cases as you just did in the picture, you shouldn't have the case seperation problems anymore. All your new brass will be fire formed again to the chamber size. During new case forming keeping the bullets seated in the lands or right next to them when forming will help with your case seperation too, and it won't be an issue being that you hand load. Only thing might be with that mauser you can usually get quite a few neck sizing reloads if you are not running too hot before you need to FL, or partial FL size.

The one thing though, is if it is an excess head space issue, why all the sudden? Might be something you should have checked out! Have you run hotter loads than before in your last batch?

I have a .308 Norma and have used the .338 WM brass with great success. I don't like the short neck from the .338, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than the Norma cases.

Here's my .338 transformation photo. left to right, with furthest right being a Norma case.

pictures did not show up, I have run a hotter load in the past but not very many of them, less than 25 I would have to guess, of 250 grain grandslams at about 3100 fps. They never showed any pressure signs at all either, even the cases that seperated didn't even flatten the primers. I am beginning to wonder if the gun has always had a headspace issue and just never showed up before as I have just recently really started shooting it a lot again and doing my own reloadingmore often. The guy who was doing my reloading was neck sizing only and I have been FL sizing only. I only have a full length sizer at this point, will be getting a neck sizer soon, just ordered one today.

 

[bman73]

You back your load down all you want, you are still going to stretch the brass and take
a bunch of life out of it. But hey, ignore what I told you. It's only been used 1000's
of times by us old timers.

I wasn't ignoring what you suggested, I don't have a larger ball expander than what is currently in my die, it is the largest caliber that I own. I have also just ordered 50 new cases, instead of rushing trying to save the brass I have I will try to salvage them at pace where I am not rushed. As my wife pointed out to me last night "Your not the luckiest person around, if something bad can happen it will happen to you, just spend the money and buy new brass" I will give the oversizing trick a try later

 

[bman73]

Okay, after some more reading on headspace and headspacing problems I think that I have found out what it was I did wrong. If I'm not allowed to post this link then moderators feel free to remove it, but I found it an informative article, especially since it has in big bold lettering exactly what I did, and telling people to never do this.
Some Random Thoughts on Headspace, Headspace Measurement and Gauges

I have been setting my die just like it said in the instructions, contact with the shell holder then 1/4 more and lock it so that it overcams on the travel. I must have tightened it up a bit more than usual this time,either that or my locking ring came loose and I have since forgotten about it after just retightening. Hopefully this experience will help someone else from making the same mistake. I know I won't ever do it like that again. Thanks to all for your help and insight, now hopefully I can still mange to save some of that new brass using some of the tips I got on here

 

[Loner]

His pictures didn't show up for me either.

Don't set your die that way at all. It is a generic book solution and is a terrible way to
treat brass. Neck size only until your brass causes the bolt to close and open a little
hard on an empty case. Then; Start with your die set to neck size only. Take it down 1/4 turn
at a time checking to see each time if the brass chambers easily again. When it does,
back the die off 1/4 turn, put in another piece of brass and go 1/16 turn at a time until
it chambers correctly. Then I do one more 1/16 turn backed off and recheck with one
more piece of brass. The repeated resizing does make the brass a hair smaller is why.
You can leave the expander ball out while you do this. No sense in working the neck
every time. Expander balls are very cheap, the mandril you have will work fine.
Headspace gauges are nice but we managed without them for 90 years. They have
really just become popular in the last 10 or 15 years. They can be off as well from
what I have read. I don't use them myself.

 

[Apex Custom Rifles]

Got the photo fixed. This was a first run of a couple cases to test out my dies. I have since ran the necks down a little further. Still end up short on the neck, but they work.

Oh.. almost forgot....A few years back, I bought a nice used .243 Win M77 MK II with a Hart barrel. Shot some factory ammo through it and didn't notice anything till I started hand loading for it. I was FL sizing those cases, and noticed this....Excessive head space... Set the barrel back and we were good to go. Still shoots 1/2" on good days, but when it finally goes, it's becoming a 6.5X47 or a .260 AI.

(Notice the faint line about 1/5 up from the bottom on the right case, just above the web).